The bell ringing thread made me think about this. What are charities that you DO like/admire and either donate to or respect enough you WOULD donate to if you could afford to?

My favorite is called Heifer International. They don't just help people by giving them food to eat...they work on infrastructure. Don't just give them a meal, but give them the means to be able to make their own meals. They give live stock and education on raising/breeding, etc.... They do other things too, but that's kind of the gist of their mission.

We tend to give smaller amounts to lots of charities. Give the majority to church, then to lots of local charities. Try to find things we can do to involve the kids. One of my favorites each year is picking a name or two from the Angel Tree and then letting the boys help pick clothes, toys, etc for the child. We try to find a child close to each of our sons ages, to help them relate.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by colorider

Phobias are for irrational fears. Fear of junk ripping badgers is perfectly rational. Those things are nasty.

There are lots of great charities out there. The one I give the most support to consistently is the local humane society, but we also give lesser amounts to Heifer, the Red Cross and public radio. My wife has payroll deduction for a student scholarship. We will give large one time donations in people's memory from time to time.

My wife and I would like to support more organizations, but there are too many of them. Also, I prefer to give substantial amounts rather than spread them out because I don't want the charity to spend any more energy than necessary raising funds -- they need to do what they exist for.

Well I use to leave it up to my better half. She would pick all kinds of charities. I also use to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club until I found out how much the CEO made. Back in the late 80’s around 400K.

After loosing so many love ones to cancer, I’ve joined the Army. Yep the LiveStrong Army!

Now before you start your Lance bashing. I ask you, what do you DO?

I was so happy last year to raise over $1200.00. at the Philly event. I never thought I could raise that money.

Heifer International, the Red Cross (and Red Crescent), Doctors Without Borders, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Nature Conservancy. Also, just about every Christmas I volunteer with a group called Elves and More that distributes bicycles to underprivileged kids. They always need help with the bike builds, and I'm a builder/inspector on those.

I know this should be in the charity ride section, but I did a 250 mile ride last year to raise money for 4H clubs in West Va. Google "Outspoken for 4H" and read about it. I also do an annual "kick-a-thon" in my Tae Kwon Do class to raise money for cancer research in honor of one of our instructors that passed away. I do alot of shopping at the local Salvation Army stores which I believe is always a good thing (recycling and giving at the same time)I've found a couple of nice bikes there also. My criteria for donating is the amount of money that actually gets to the charity you're donating to. I know that's a fuzzy area, but something to check into before you do.

Some great organizations mentioned so far. They are all deserving - thanks, everyone, for reaching out.

Now for the commercial.

I am very active in a very fun Rotary Club, so I donate to the Rotary Foundation (and to a local school for deaf children age infant to 5 that I served on the Board of for six or seven years).

In its biggest project, but nowhere near its only one, the Rotary Foundation has been responsible for mobilizing people wordwide to eradicate polio (and has put up a pile o' money over the last 20+ years). The number of new polio cases worldwide in 2006 (almost all in the Indian subcontinent or central Africa) was less than 1% of the number in 1985. Rotary didn't do it all, but it was the indispensible driving force and its effort represent the largest and most successful private charitable health initiative ever. Rotary's efforts literally got shooting wars stopped for several days so teams could go in to innoculate young children. Truly amazing stuff.

Rotary is looking to take on getting safe drinking water to the world as its next major undertaking. Don't bet against us - we're a pretty determined bunch of folks.

The Rotary Foundation also funds major educational programs (Rotary is a huge source of scholarships all over the world for just about any area of study and knowledge you can imagine), professional and student exchange programs, and thousands of other humanitarian, educational, and international exchange programs, at the local, regional, national and international level, and does it in a way that actively encourages local Rotary Clubs to reach out to identify and accomplish significant international projects. (My Club spearheaded the building of a badly-needed bridge at a village in Tanzania with the help of the Rotary Foundation Matching Grants program a few years ago.)

And every penny that goes to the Rotary Foundation goes into the good works. How? By handling donations on a three year cycle. Money collected in 2007-2008 will be earmarked for expenditure in 2010-2011, with the intervening years being used to identify projects, make budgets, and take care of logistics, paperwork (tons of red tape to work through when dealing with foreign governments - of the US government, for the matter). In the meantime, the funds are invested, and the the Rotary Foundation pays its staff and overhead costs from the interest on those investments. At the end of the three years, all of the principal - all of it - goes to funding the projects, moving the people and goods to where they're needed, buying the needed supplies, getting the equipment, whatever. It's a pretty amazing feat, and it happens every . . . single . . . year, to the tune of over $70 million in 2003-04 (the last year I could quickly find numbers).

Some local Rotary Clubs are admittedly stodgy - mine sure isn't, but some are. But the work that the Rotary Foundation does deserves support. Politics, religion, ethnicity, gender - none of that matters. Making the world a better place, promoting understanding each other, and having a good time doing it - all of that matters.

Didn't think to list it myself and nobody else has, but I guess I should appreciate the March of Dimes quite a bit. I remember my mom saying something about them helping us when I was born. Honestly, though, I know little about them. I should go look them up.